Alcoholic drinks should display calorie counts to help fight the obesity epidemic, say local councillors

Although the link between booze and cancer is known, people are ignorant that drink can make them fat, according to the Local Government Association.

Drinking five pints of beer at 4 per cent strength over 24 hours is the equivalent of eating more than three burgers, which would take 90 minutes to run off.

And a bottle of wine – roughly four 175ml glasses – has the same calorie count as more than two burgers and would take longer than an hour to run off. So the LGA now wants breweries to put calorie counts on all bottles and cans.

Spokeswoman Izzi Seccombe, said: “Prevention is the only way to tackle obesity.”